There ought to be a law...

Missouri voters, stop signing petitions.

There are too many outside interests that think they have a right to influence our state government, and that pisses me off most righteously.

What the hell business does Ward Connerly have interfering in our state government? He lives and pays his taxes in California, but he has a bit in his teeth and wants to outlaw Affirmative Action in Missouri. This pompous jerk thinks he has the right to tell us we should amend our constitution! And I gotta repeat - he is not a Missouri taxpayer, so where the hell does he get off?

With the May 4 deadline for signature collection looming, Connerly is downright desperate to collect enough signatures to get his wet-dream on our ballot in November. So desperate, in fact, that he is recruiting "members and friends" of the Minuteman xenophobes to come to Missouri and collect signatures.

The trip is being pitched as a “1-2 week paid ‘vacation.’” Travel and meals would be paid for. And like professional circulators, Minutemen would receive a small fee for each signature they collect.

Of course, organizers know it’s not money that drives Minutemen. The activist group, comprised of private citizens, has been monitoring the U.S.-Mexico border for illegal immigrants since 2005.

“The tie-in with immigration issues is very strong,” Minutemen organizer Stuart Hurlbert e-mailed his fellow members last week.

“About 3/4 of all immigrants and probably more like 90% percent of illegal immigrants, are immediately eligible the minute they cross the border or get off the plane, on the basis of their ‘race,’ for preferential treatment by all sorts of federally mandated programs.”

Connerly is also pushing a similar agenda in Arizona, but he isn't recruiting hate-mongers to gather signatures there.
"Why not?" you may ask.

Because, dear reader, Arizona has a common-sense law on the books that prohibits petitioners who are not registered voters in the state from circulating and collecting signatures.

Missouri needs a law like this. Fortunately, the people in my part of the state had the good sense to send Jolie Justus to the state senate, and she is on the case, working to get similar legislation passed right here in Missouri.

If you are a Missouri reader, please contact your state representative and state senator and encourage them to support legislation that would close our referendum process to outside interests pushing personal agendas.

UPDATE -- 10:15 p.m.

Via FiredUp! Missouri, we learn that one of Ward Connerly's minions, a fellow named John Wynne, was interviewed by police in Wentzville on Sunday when he ducked monitors who intend to assure that signature gatherers are honestly representing the petitions they are collecting signatures for.

In the course of conducting their interview and investigation, the Wentzville police learned that Mr. Wynne is wanted in three states on misdemeanor voter fraud warrants. He has quite a history of misrepresenting the position of petitions he gathers signatures for.

Because the charges are not extraditable, he was not arrested and so far as anyone knows, he is continuing to duck the monitors and collect signatures while misrepresenting the petition he wants Missourians to sign.

Have you called your state congresscritters yet to put a stop to petition gatherers like this creep?

There's more: "There ought to be a law..." >>

Hillary Clinton Campaign Headquarters Open In Kansas City

Saturday after noon the Hillary Clinton campaign headquarters held a grand opening in Kansas City. The doors opened at 10:00 a.m. and volunteers started phone banking, then at 2:30 a group of local and state elected officials who are endorsing Senator Clinton in her bid for the White House spoke to the standing-room-only crowd.

The headquarters is located at 7442 Holmes, on the northeast corner of 75th and Holmes, across the street from the northeast corner of Tower Park. The office space is being donated by local businessman, developer, community re-investor and Democratic fundraiser Nick Abnos, owner of the Abdiana Futon chain.

I arrived at the headquarters at about 2:00, with the local politicians who have endorsed the Senator scheduled to address the crowd at 2:30. State Senators Rachel Storch and Jolie Justus, Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders, and United States Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver. They were great speakers one and all - well-spoken, articulate in their expression of why they are supporting Senator Clinton - but Congressman Cleaver spoke last, and that man can move a mountain with his oratorical skills.

He had a lot of things to say, and much of it quotable - but one thing he said rings absolutely true...speaking about the Republicans and the concern-trolling of certain factions of the Democratic Party - "We are all Democrats. We can't let them separate us."

Amen, Mayor (Congress is only national) you got that right.

There's more: "Hillary Clinton Campaign Headquarters Open In Kansas City" >>

Showing Some Love to My State Senator

Pardon me a moment of self indulgence, but I have to take this opportunity to crow about my State Senator.

First of all, she has the perfect Senator name - Jolie Justus.

Senator Justus. Does that just totally kick ass, or what? I mean, really. If that name is on the ballot, just certify the vote right now. How can you not vote for Justus?

I intend to call her Senator Justus for a long time, and in my flights of fancy, I don't go to a tropical isle on vacation - I watch election returns in November of 2016 and she takes the Class III Senate seat currently held by Kit Bond. I know. I'm such a wonk...I probably need professional help.

Right now, as I write this, she has been in chambers for over 24 hours as the Missouri legislature debates the sale of MOHELA (Missouri Higher Education loan Authority) assets. She is live-blogging the proceedings. She started live-blogging the issue shortly before 5:00 this morning.

If you can't tell, I'm a big fan of Senator Justus. She does a lot to restore my faith in the possibility of good government and representation of the people.

If you read her blog, you will see why I am so enamored of her as a politician. Some of the truly democratic, thoughtful ideals she holds just choke me up. I put her in the same category as I place Russ Feingold, Nancy Kassebaum and the late Paul Wellstone. It is a mighty small group of truly dedicated public servants that rises to that level in my mind, and she gained entre' very early on, but she doesn't make one single neck-hair stand up. That is unprecedented.

At one point the bill's handler and the governor's staff would not assure me that UMKC's projects would be included in the plan unless I promised them a yes vote. This was BEFORE I was provided the version of the bill that they wanted me to vote for. Of course I want UMKC's projects to be included, but how could I ever promise to vote on a bill that I hadn't even read?(emphasis added)

This reminded me of that time a reporter asked Senator Feingold how he could vote against the Patriot Act, and he responded "I read it."

[Cross Posted from Blue Girl, Red State]

There's more: "Showing Some Love to My State Senator" >>

Vote Today, Kansas City

It's time for Kansas City to winnow the field to two in the Mayoral primary tomorrow. We sure have no shortage of candidates - twelve people are vying for one of the two slots on the ballot in the general, that will be held in six weeks. I can only take three of them seriously, and of those three, any one would do a good job, but I'm backing Funkhouser because he is the sanest person in the race where TIF is concerned. He could be stronger on getting us light rail, and he could stake out a bit more territory on fixing the problems with the Municipal Courts. But on balance, Mark is my guy. Eighteen years as city auditor has given him an end-users perspective on the inner workings of city government - and what things actually cost - that the rest of the candidates just can't match, no matter how many terms they spent on the City Council or as County Executive.

Besides - how often do you get a chance to vote for a guy who answers to "Funk" and had his biggest fundraiser to date in a real live down-n-dirty blues bar?


The other two candidates worthy of consideration are Jim Glover and Alvin Brooks. Since our incumbent Mayor, the Absolutely Fabulous Kay Barnes has expressed disgust with the negative campaigning that burst ont he scene about the same time as Missouri's white-trash, poor-man's Karl Rove got picked up as a campaign staffer by one of the more desperate contenders...I will just say nothing about the rest of the field. Some I don't know enough about to attack, but a couple of them...I'll just abstain.

Now that that is taken care of -

You need to go over to Gone Mild and read Dan's rant about the idiocy of closing 20% of the polling places less than a week before the most contested mayoral primary in the post-Pendergast era!

My State Senator is doing a fine job of taking care of her constituents - if you go to her site you will see that she has the links up and the top of the page is dedicated to polling update information. For those too lazy to click the link, here's her PSA:

Dude Where's My Polling Place?

Thanks to Dan for the heads up on polling place changes for Tuesday's city elections. If you get confused -- you can always vote at the Election Board -- 1828 Walnut.

I have been pretty busy lately, and remiss in my duties - but cruise her site and see that she is by golly doing the job we elected her to do, and I look forward to selecting Jolie Justus on my ballot for years into the future, based on what I've seen so far. (This is where I take a flight-of-fancy 10 years down the road to a contest for Missouri's Class III Senate seat...I am a hopeless political junkie. Research to help those similarly afflicted is ongoing.)

Senator Justus. I just like how that sounds, you know?

There's more: "Vote Today, Kansas City" >>